On May 20, International Students Day was commemorated at Ibn Haldun University, where international students from approximately 88 countries gathered to showcase their cultures, values, languages, foods and ideas. Following that, on May 21-24, the 8th Ethnosport Culture Festival was held in Istanbul, where again, people from different geographies showcased their sports and cultures.

In these two gatherings, people from different countries, faiths, races and languages gathered around their shared humanity and on the principle of coexistence based on ontological dignity for all human beings, justice, equality and resistance to structures and ideologies of oppression.

The fact that these activities took place in Istanbul is not a coincidence. Istanbul’s civilizational history makes it a nexus where different civilizations can engage in dialogue.

Moreover, Istanbul, and by extension Türkiye, has become the homeland for many international students, diaspora communities, expatriates and travelers who have been mesmerized by the Anatolian culture and spirit of hospitality. Hence, in this age of global mobility, we need to expand the notions of belonging, identity and homeland.

Homeland transcends borders

The concept of "homeland" has never been merely a cartographic fact for the Turkish state and its people, given its Ottoman and Seljuk past. Rather, homeland has become a living and dynamic doctrine that extends outward through history, civilization, responsibility and ambition.

Many versions of the concept of "homeland" exist in media, political and public discourses in Türkiye today. From the "Blue Homeland," which asserts maritime sovereignty across the Marmara, the Aegean, and Eastern Mediterranean, to the "Sky Homeland" that commands sovereign airspace through air power, Türkiye has systematically extended the philosophical and operational meaning of homeland.

Furthermore, new ideas and concepts like the "Cyber Homeland" and the "Space Homeland" hint at securing the digital and orbital dimensions of national existence. Each iteration of the homeland idea adds a new domain, and each domain, in turn, brings with it a corresponding responsibility. All these ideas share one underlying logic for Türkiye: the nation must be whole, sovereign and capable of defending every sphere.

To these ideas about homeland, we can add a new one regarding Türkiye’s foreign policy, diplomacy and responsibility in the Muslim world and beyond.

"The Homeland of the Ummah" is the proposition that Türkiye’s strategic identity is incomplete without acknowledging its moral, ethical and civilizational responsibilities toward the broader Muslim world and in geographies where there is oppression and suffering.

Civilizational solidarity for Muslims

Türkiye occupies a unique position in the contemporary Muslim world. It is simultaneously a modern republic, a NATO member, and the heir to the Ottoman Empire, which for six centuries served as the administrative center of the Muslim world as the holder of the caliphate. This historical inheritance is not just nostalgia, but it is geopolitical capital.

When President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan speaks at the United Nations General Assembly, holding a map of Palestine, or when Türkiye opens embassies across sub-Saharan Africa, Ankara is drawing on a civilizational memory, concept and responsibility.

This civilizational solidarity and unity Türkiye is positioned to lead is not based on religious imposition, but on a shared historical consciousness. The Muslim world is fractured by sectarian division, by colonial borders, by authoritarian governance, by the cynicism of great-power patronage and neo-colonialism. Into this fractured state, Türkiye offers a model: a Muslim democracy with an indigenous defense industry, a voice that speaks in international forums without apology, and a tradition of statecraft that predates the Westphalian order imposed in the Middle East, Africa and beyond.

But this dialogue demands honesty as much as solidarity and unity. Türkiye and other countries like Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt, Pakistan, Iran, Algeria and Nigeria can mitigate zero-sum geopolitical and geostrategic competition and usher in a new geopolitical order in this age of crisis and collapse of the international order.

Role against oppression

A shift from passive sympathy to active engagement is what distinguishes the "Ummah Homeland" from rhetoric.

Türkiye has, over the past two decades, built the institutional infrastructure for a genuinely proactive role. The Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) extends religious and educational outreach across more than 40 countries. The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) has delivered development assistance from Myanmar to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Turkish Maarif Foundation schools have network institutions in dozens of Muslim-majority nations, projecting a Turkish educational philosophy abroad. The Yunus Emre Institute is opening across many African capitals, introducing Turkish culture and language to build deeper connections.

On the military and humanitarian front, Türkiye was among the first to respond to the Rohingya crisis, the Somali famine, the Sudan war and the repeated cycles of violence and brutalities in Gaza and the West Bank. Turkish Bayraktar drones were not only sold to Azerbaijan and Ukraine, but they were also offered as tools of asymmetric self-defense to nations that had long been on the losing end of military imbalance. This is not charity; it is geostrategic solidarity, and it reorders relationships of dependence that have too long defined the Muslim world’s position in this unjust international system.

Ummah homeland for unity

The final and most ambitious dimension of an ummah homeland is its potential as a framework for geostrategic solidarity and unity. It is not a caliphate, not a pan-Islamic state, but a coherent bloc of nations that share interests, coordinate positions and refuse to be played against one another in this unjust global order.

The 57 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) represent 1.9 billion people and control vast energy reserves, critical maritime chokepoints and emerging economies. Fragmented, they are clients. United around shared principles of sovereignty, justice and development, they constitute a pole in a genuinely multipolar world.

Moreover, Türkiye is not the only candidate for leadership within this ummah homeland vision. Indonesia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Egypt, and the Gulf states each bring irreplaceable weight and capital. But Türkiye brings something particular: a functioning state with strategic autonomy, a defense industry that has broken the monopoly of Western arms suppliers, and a diplomatic tradition of navigating between blocs without capitulating to either. In the age of BRICS expansion, shifting alignments, and the slow erosion of the post-1945 liberal order, the ummah homeland concept is not an Islamic project against the West, China or Russia; it is a civilizational project for dignity and justice in the world.

Finally, just as Blue Homeland declared that Türkiye would not accept a diminished maritime presence or violations, and Sky Homeland declared that its skies would be defended by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Ummah Homeland can declare that the oppression of Muslims and others anywhere in the homeland will be unacceptable.

Ummah Homeland can be a doctrine of moral, ethical and civilizational geography, one that insists the borders of concern are wider than the borders of states.